{"id":1537,"date":"2014-08-04T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-04T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/bge\/?p=1537"},"modified":"2014-08-04T09:50:08","modified_gmt":"2014-08-04T09:50:08","slug":"advocacy-through-excellence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/bge\/2014\/08\/04\/advocacy-through-excellence\/","title":{"rendered":"Advocacy Through Excellence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Jean Cheng Gorman recently resigned as Associate Pastor at Covenant Grove Church in Modesto, CA and will soon begin serving on staff for the Pacific Southwest Conference, focusing on promoting health in ministry for pastors, spouses and staff. She also serves as Vice-President of Advocates for Covenant Clergy Women.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So many important ideas about ways to advocate for women clergy have been shared in this blog recently. Among them are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"line-height: 19.5px\">Providing visibility and opportunities for women in leadership<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"line-height: 19.5px\">Facilitating the training and ordination of women<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"line-height: 19.5px\">Developing mentorship pathways for girls and women<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"line-height: 19.5px\">Exposing others to women preachers<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"line-height: 19.5px\">Fostering partnerships among men and women in ministry<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">These steps are sorely needed, as is another&#8211; advocacy through excellence. A seasoned leader whom I greatly respect recently told me, &#8220;The best way to advocate for women clergy is for you to be the best pastor you can be.&#8221; He then shared how his own theology on women in ministry changed after experiencing the ministry of a gifted woman pastor.<\/p>\n<p>My story is the same. Having heard traditional interpretations of biblical texts as prohibiting women in leadership, I had always believed women could not be pastors. Then we began attending a nondenominational church whose associate pastor was a woman. She was a gifted preacher. More so, in fact, than the men on staff. Experiencing God work in my life in powerful ways through her preaching was the beginning of a theological journey that has brought me to where I am today.<\/p>\n<p>Excellence in ministry speaks volumes to those who doubt that God calls women as pastors, teachers and leaders. It is hard to deny the calling of God when you see it in action.<\/p>\n<p>Sisters, be the best pastors you can be. Preach the word with boldness and faithfulness. Lead and serve the church with humility and fearlessness. Equip and empower the Body of Christ to spread the Kingdom of God. As you strive for excellence and passionately serve the Lord with all gifts He has given you, know that the Lord Himself will advocate for you.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/bge?moderation_action=report_form&#038;object_type=post&#038;object_id=1537&#038;width=250&#038;height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jean Cheng Gorman recently resigned as Associate Pastor at Covenant Grove Church in Modesto, CA and will soon begin serving on staff for the Pacific Southwest Conference, focusing on promoting health in ministry for pastors, spouses and staff. She also serves as Vice-President of Advocates for Covenant Clergy Women. &nbsp; So many important ideas about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19328],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-testimoies-and-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Advocacy Through Excellence - Commission on Biblical Gender Equality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/bge\/2014\/08\/04\/advocacy-through-excellence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Advocacy Through Excellence - Commission on Biblical Gender Equality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jean Cheng Gorman recently resigned as Associate Pastor at Covenant Grove Church in Modesto, CA and will soon begin serving on staff for the Pacific Southwest Conference, focusing on promoting health in ministry for pastors, spouses and staff. 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